Complete Set of The Antonello Brothers
by Kayelle Allen
New Release
Synopsis
A Stolen Heart - This child can steal anything. Including a warrior-pirate's heart... Bro - He can be invisible, but he can't hide from the truth... At the Mercy of Her Pleasure - She's addictive. He can't touch her. But what if he kissed her just once... For Women Only - His secret truth is her people's darkest lie... Crystal Clear Truth - How can you trust when your own truth is a lie...
#SciFi #Romance #Read #BookSeries #Read #NewRelease #BookTour #RenesGetaway #RLFBlog #AntonelloBrothers
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Website https://kayelleallen.com/antonello-brothers/
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Excerpts
#1 - A Stolen Heart
A Stolen Heart
In this scene, Luc and Senthys are riding in Luc's hoversine (a limousine that flies right above the ground). The word arcane conjures up magic and sorcery, but its definition is "requiring secret or mysterious knowledge." To Luc, who's an Arcane Master in the Thieves' Guild, those secrets are the lifeblood of the skill. Here, he explains one of the basic rules to Senthys, who is three. Pietas is the king, Luc's ex.
The boy swung his feet, which, on the short rise of the hoversine's safety seat, meant he kicked the main seat with his heels.
That was already old and it had just started. Luc leaned down close to distract him. "Let's learn some thief rules."
"Why?" Senthys tilted his head. "Don't you already know them?"
Luc stopped himself from reacting. After all, he was talking to a child, not that different from talking to Pietas. "Yes, I do, and I'm going to teach them to you. I told you there would be two rules inside the store and if you obeyed them, you could pick out a toy."
"Oh. I 'member." Like Luc, Senthys folded his hands before him. "Ready."
"You are to stay next to me at all times. You may hold my hand if you like, but do not leave me to look at things, or to see things unless I give you permission. Is that clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Say it back to me."
"Um..." The boy fidgeted. "All of it?"
Luc decided against counting for patience--to any number. "Tell me what you understood."
"Stay with you."
"Good! That's perfect."
The child bounced in his seat.
How delighted this boy was to do well. Luc must encourage that. "The other rule is not to steal anything in this store. Say it back to me."
"Don't steal in the store?"
"That's right!" Luc patted his hands together. "What a good job."
Senthys clapped, grinning.
"I'm going to tell you something and I want you to always remember it. Honorable thieves do not steal unless under contract. If an honorable thief cannot afford something, then he must work a regular job to earn the money." Luc placed a hand on the boy's arm. "My Deshai are honorable. They do not take things without a contract. Understand?"
"Yes, sir. Can I have a contract?"
"You can have one when you reach level thirteen. At that level, you can be hired professionally."
"Are you level thirteen?"
Luc brushed at his sleeve. "I'm level forty-eight."
"Oh." The boy nodded as if impressed. "Is that better than thirteen?"
Amusing, however deflating that might be. "Quite a bit better," Luc told him. "It's the highest in the Guild. Arcane Master."
Senthys cocked his head. "Then that's what I want to be. A Arcane Mister."
"Master," Luc corrected, smiling. "Arcane Master."
"Arcane Master. I want to be that. Brinn says I can be anything."
True words. Luc held up a hand, reached across the seat, and Senthys high-fived him. "Your brother is absolutely right."
#2 - Bro
Bro
In this scene from Bro, Senth is playing with a new tool he acquired for work as a thief, a cloak that makes him invisible. And he's about to test it on a room filled with bullies--his peers.
Senth shook out the midnight blue cloak. The garment resembled the previous cape he'd worn for years, and had the standard lining with the Guild symbol, a skeleton key behind a slashed circle. Supposedly, the cloth inside had the same ability to view images and video. The back fell straight down from his shoulders to the ground. Multiple pockets allowed him to carry equipment and stash items. Hidden sleeves let him wear it as a coat.
Best of all, it had room for all his tools and lockpicks.
After slipping it on, he pulled on gloves of the same material. When he lifted the hood, the Nightstealth film embedded in the cloth activated.
His body disappeared.
For a moment, he had the sensation of floating, and threw out his arms to steady himself. Recalling his training, he closed his eyes to reorient himself, took a deep, steadying breath and opened them.
The world stabilized.
The cloak had fooled him, but how well would that sucker work on a group of thieves who'd been training to use it for weeks?
Senth strode right through the entrance to the Great Hall and straight to the thieves waiting in line. Taking care not to disturb the air and cause a breeze where none should be, he strolled along the crowd, looking each person in the eye. The thrum of voices continued, unabated. He stepped back, waved his arms. Jumped up and down.
Nada, zip, zilch, zero.
No one glanced his way.
No response.
No disturbance in the hive.
He'd been erased from the room.
Senth pumped both fists in the air.
His professors had droned on about the layers of nano-reflector-whatevers and the history of its development. Huge yawner. What mattered was it worked.
If this upgrade fooled copbots as well as it did people, he'd live up to his guild name, Blue Shadow. And how perfect was that?
Time to test it in public.
#3 - At The Mercy of Her Pleasure
At The Mercy of Her Pleasure
In this scene from At the Mercy of Her Pleasure by Kayelle Allen, NarrAy Jorlan has just met Senth Antonello for the first time. She's taking it slow, sizing him up for the job at hand. Usually, men are distracted by her pheromones, but on this occasion, she finds herself on the distracted side.
NarrAy crossed her legs, exposing a good portion of her skin under the short dress. If she'd been sitting opposite Senth, the length might have been welcome. But his father lounged in that chair and Senth sat beside her on the couch. Her position put her a little closer to him.
"Empress Destoiya murdered my parents," NarrAy continued her story, "as surely as if she'd been the one who shot them in the back. They were scientists working on secret technology. When rumors got out that they were planning to give their findings to the rebellion, the Conqueror had them killed and then confiscated everything, including their personal belongings. There was a locket my mother inherited from my grandmother, which my grandmother inherited from her grandmother. It's mine and I want it back."
#4 - For Women Only
For Women Only
In this scene from For Women Only, Khyff has received a notereader (a tablet-type device) filled with information about his mother, who died when he was three. More info is available to him, but at what price?
Khyff flung himself back in his chair. Every time he and his brother talked, they ended up arguing. Khyff rubbed his eyes. The pleasant meal they'd started lay almost untouched and any appetite he'd had was gone.
It had taken seconds to read the all too short bio of their mother that his brother was perusing.
Sileenya Antonello had run away from home on Trien at age ten and been arrested for theft at eleven. While still on probation, she'd disappeared at thirteen and been arrested at age fourteen for unlicensed prostitution. When her pregnancy test had come back positive, they'd placed her back on probation. She'd run away again and been fifteen when she'd given birth to Khyff.
Two years later she began living with an armada-enlisted man who transferred to Felidae, taking Sileenya and Khyff with him, but then he abandoned them. Her next boyfriend addicted her to drugs and prostituted her to newly recruited male Kin soldiers eager to spend their first pay to experience sex with a human female. When she became pregnant, he transferred off-planet, leaving them to fend for themselves.
An Elder of the Ruh clan found Sileenya huddled in an alley during a thunderstorm, holding the nearly lifeless Khyff in her arms. A scant month later, the Tzesar of the Kin ordered the halfbreed newborn destroyed, but the elder intervened and sold Senth to slavers to save his life.
Sileenya and Khyff had been cast into the streets.
Days later, she was dead by her own hand and Khyff was a slave. Senth ended up at an orphanage where he was later adopted by Luc Saint-Cyr.
Senth poked at the notereader's buttons. "This thing is encrypted. What if the Empress knows who my father is? Don't I have a right to know that? You have to talk to her. Find out what she wants. Maybe she'll give you the key."
"Destoiya's not going to give me information without demanding a favor. I have nothing left to give that woman. She's already taken way too much."
"Khyff, that's unfair. I need this. You can't ice up and go all mental."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
His brother growled, a predatory cat sound that made the hair on Khyff's neck stand up. He scrambled out of his chair and stepped back from the table.
"That"--Senth pointed a finger at him--"is what I mean. I do anything Kin-like and you freak. Get hold of yourself, Khyff. You're falling apart. The brother I knew two years ago would've done whatever it took to find out who his father was. He would've helped me find mine."
#5 - Crystal Clear Truth
Crystal Clear Truth
In this scene from Crystal Clear Truth, Shohn and Joe meet for dinner and to discuss how Shohn's company, idBot, can help Joe find the person he's looking for.
Though she knew the answer, Shohn asked, "How many doctorates do you hold, Joe?"
"Three. I always wanted to research firestorms, so I have one in the new Firestorm Science, directed by my father, one in Energy-and-Power Engineering, and one in the old favorite for geologists, Fluvial Geomorphology."
"What is that last about?"
"Characteristics and configuration of land forms, and their evolution. My father wrote two books in that field."Joe scooted his chair closer. "Is it true that what I say to idBot stays with idBot?"
"It is. Like lawyers and clergy."
"My father considered firestorms not as random incidents." He chewed his lower lip, his bright-blue gaze focused on Shohn. "Kin know when someone's lying, isn't that right?"
"Yes. Human scent gives them away. It's not impossible to lie to us without us knowing, but it is rare."
"You'll know what I say is the truth, correct?"
What was he getting at? Did he plan to lie? Odd way to go about it, if so. "I would know whether you believed something was true."
"Okay." Joe squared his shoulders. "My father believed firestorms have a personal agenda."
She considered those words. "What you're saying is he thought the firestorms themselves were planning where to strike."
"Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but when you examine the evidence..." He sighed. "I don't mean to sound condescending, but you wouldn't understand. There are only a handful of people who would, and those few are all in the TCF. But they refused to take him seriously."
If Saint-Cyr could hear this, he would be cheering. Firestorms did indeed have their own agenda, but this was the first time anyone other than an immortal had recognized it.
Gaining Joe's trust might be the key to carrying out both her missions.
Shohn laid back one ear. "I imagine the TCF tried to silence him."
"They thought he'd lost his mind. He and I debated his theory often, and we'd swap sides. We'd each argue for, then against. We tried poking holes in it, but it held. It frustrated him that the TCF considered his observations 'metaphysical' instead of scientific."
"They didn't appreciate the balance between the two?"
"Not one bit." Joe folded his hands on the table. "My dad literally wrote the book on firestorms, and knew what he was talking about. They'd never dream of letting him go, of course, even if they considered his later theories quackery. I'm more careful about discussing the topic."
"You're saying that, professionally, you have to be dishonest about your beliefs."
"Yes. At least, inside the TCF. I don't talk about what I believe, and I document none of what I do with the TCF. Dad's research was private, but they laid claim to it when he died, and suppressed it. What they don't know is that I have copies of everything in a secure location. His final theories were ridiculed when he was alive, and now that he's gone, they exist, officially, only in what we shared, what I remember, and handwritten notes I've locked away."
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